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Guide:Plausibility
The Plausibility guide will help you to create believable content for this wiki. Science fiction is the application of real world scientific theories into the realm of writing and storytelling. Occasionally, reality may be bent using the Rule of Cool for narrative purposes, but overusing this rule will infringe on the audience's willing suspension of belief. Hardness rating Omni 01 strives to be very scientifically accurate, but allows reasonable reality breaks for storytelling. Faster than light travel in an interstellar society is imperative, because it would otherwise take years to travel from Earth to anywhere remotely interesting in the galaxy. FTL travel is an acceptable break from reality for pacing purposes, but is nonetheless explained plausibly basing itself on real FTL theories. Common science fiction inaccuracies Below are some common sci-fi inaccuracies that disrupt willing suspension of disbelief in a hard science setting. Human aliens Human aliens are two or more biologically separate, yet physiologically identical species. The term mostly refers to aliens that look exactly like humans or may differ slightly in facial features such as forehead ridges or differently shaped ears. Human aliens are mostly found in TV shows which deliberately design them that way due to budgetary reasons, but the realm of writing does not have that constraint. The reason for this improbability is that the chances are astronomically low that two separate species will evolve exactly alike. Truth be told, convergent evolution is still realistic making humanoid aliens still a possibility - species evolve to find similar solutions to the same problems, but because of different environments, two species that evolve convergently will never look exactly alike. Realistic typical traits of a sapient race will include an omnivorous or carnivorous diet as well as the ability to manipulate their surroundings in order to create tools. A plethora of creatively designed aliens can easily fit these characteristics. Planet of hats A planet of hats is a society of aliens that consist of one single culture. Very frequently, every single alien of this society will look exactly alike. This particular oddity is a leftover from other genres of writing where the planet of hats analogue is supposed to serve the role of being another kingdom or town. Earth has hundreds of cultures and ideas, which only makes the planet of hats more improbable. Once again, this cliche stems from TV shows limited by the budget as they are only given one chance to show off a new alien. In writing, a planet of hats comes across as rather dull and uninteresting. Ultra-idealistic societies Hedonistic societies (pleasure seeking civilizations) and dystopias (an attempt at perfection that sacrifices aspects of humanity) are plausible types of advanced civilizations. A Mary Sue society is not. Most importantly, we do not allow societies built as a means of expressing your political beliefs as that is against the wiki's rules on preaching and propaganda. Incorrectly portrayed space Space is a fascinating place. Early 20th century science fiction could only speculate what space was like, but even after our knowledge as improved, many writers still go by this outdated science. The result is spacecraft flying around in space as if they were in an atmosphere, as well as starships that travel across space as if it were an ocean - travelling along a two dimensional axis from planet to planet. While we are not inclined to nitpick, these obvious errors should be avoided. For more information on how space works, see Space warfare. Superhero abilities While superheroes are passable in soft science fiction, hard science fiction is an entirely different domain. Superhero-like characters could easily be genetic engineered, but all of these abilities must be explainable with scientifically sound ideas. For example, the ability to shrink in size violates the law of conservation of mass, and is therefore not possible. Nonetheless, the universe of Omni 01 tends to avoid superhero like characters in the first place as it is much more practical to just use conventional weapons. Alien invasions Alien invasions are a given in a society of interstellar empires. However, their reasons need to be completely justified in order for it to realistically play out. For example, if an alien empire wants to invade another planet for mineral resources, they are much better off avoiding a war in the first place and finding an unoccupied asteroid field. A war with even a pre-space flight race would cost more than it is actually worth. Once humans achieve interstellar travel, we can be certain that we will be mining Mars before sending warships to Alpha Centauri. Stagnant technology Technology constantly changes. Even in human society, our knowledge is exponentially increasing. A society is unlikely to remain unchanged for hundreds or thousands of years. If your civilization has been around for that long, a great degree of advancement should be expected: better weapons, more efficient FTL, etc. If technology is stagnant in your society, you'll need a good justificiation. See also *Methods of space travel *Space warfare *Cliche guide Category:Science Category:Guides